Customer Service

What has happened to customer service? Does it make you mad when people you are buying from don't seem to care? Does it make you mad when people you are buying from don't understand your needs? It does me.

The most recent example is as follows. A light came on in my truck on December 29, 2005 so I took it to the car dealer on Dec 30th. They hooked it up to the machine and said I had a bad part on my transmission. They would have to order it and it wouldn't hurt to drive it. They said they would call when the part came in and set me up an appointment to fix it. I did notice that I am running about 5000 RPM's higher than normal and it is knocking down my gas mileage. 2 weeks later they haven't called so I call them. I asked if my part was in and they didn't know. After being on hold for 5 minutes they came back on the line and asked what part I ordered. I told them I didn't order anything, they did. You looked at my truck and said I needed this part. After another 5 minutes on hold they came back on and said it was in. I didn't say anything about not calling me, I just made an appointment for January 17th. No problem he said. I take my truck in this moring to get it fixed. He said they were way behind and something like this would need an appointment. Of course his tone was saying, " You dummy, you can't just come in here for something major without an appointment". I recognized his name so I proceeded to tell him that I had talked to him last Thursday and he had made the appointment for this morning. He checked around and applogized, but there was no way he could fit it in. I didn't tell him how I had kept my whole day open to get my truck fixed. I didn't tell him that I didn't need to keep another day open to get my truck fixed. He did get apologetic towards the end. I guess he saw the scowl on my face. I wish I would have said something, but that's just not me. I guess I'll call him back this afternoon like he said.

There are countless other examples. The office supply store where no one seems to want to help you, or sometimes can't help you. There's the check out person who thinks it's an honor for you that he takes time to check you out, even though they are getting paid to do it. There's the checkout person that thinks you are inconvienencing them by having to check you out, even though they are getting paid to do it. And then there's the employee you ask to help you and he says it's not in my job description. All he would have to say is, "I don't know how to help you, but let me find someone who can". I realize I'm talking about a minority of the retail work force, but it sure seems to be increasing.

I'm probably the most critical of these people because of my job. I sell the same products as my competitors at the same price. The only way I have to differentiate myself is by service. I have to focus on all the little things. It makes me mad to do this all day and then when I am the customer it doesn't get reciprocated.

Everyone wants to complain about Wal Mart, but I usually get better service there than most places.

Oh well, I dont' know what we can do to change it. I just thought of something that might help. We will probably be trading Tahoe's this spring. I can't wait till that salesman tries to differentiate himself by bragging on his service department. I believe I will tell him about my experience with his service department. Who knows, maybe I'll get a big discount because he can't add value to the price because of his service department.